"Look!"

"Where?" whispered Bunny, for he was filled with excitement.

"Right over by that stone!" and Sue pointed ahead a little way and down the island sh.o.r.e. "Isn't that an alligator?" she asked.

Bunny looked long and carefully. Then he showed much disappointment as he answered:

"No, that isn't an alligator, Sue. It's just an old floating log, like the one we pegged stones at the other day. It isn't an alligator at all."

She was glad of it, but she did not say so.

"It looked like an alligator, anyhow," she remarked.

"Yes," agreed Bunny, as he tossed a stone near the black object, hitting it and thus making sure it was not alive. "It did look like an alligator. But we'll find some--come on."

However, this did not seem to be a very good day for alligators, and the children had reached the most distant end of the island without seeing any when suddenly Sue, who had wandered a little ahead of her brother, called out:

"Look, there's another island!"

And, surely enough, there was a smaller one a short distance from the larger one on which the children had first landed.

"Come on! We'll go there!" cried Bunny. "Maybe there's alligators there!"

He hurried down to the strip of water that separated the two islands.

Then he began to roll up his trousers as far above his knees as he could.

"What you going to do?" asked Sue.

"I'm going to wade over to that other island," Bunny answered.

"Maybe the water's deep," suggested his sister.

"Well, if it is I won't go," Bunny replied. "But I don't guess it is."

"And maybe there's alligators in the water," went on Sue.

Bunny paused and looked at the strip between the two islands, one large, on which they then were, the other smaller. Nothing seemed to be in the strip of water.

"I guess it's all right," said Bunny Brown, as he finished rolling up his trousers.

Into the water he waded, and as Sue did not want to be left behind she followed, holding up her dress and skirt to keep them dry. She hurried over the strip of water, which was quite shallow, only coming to the knees of the children.

"Now maybe we'll find some alligators here," Bunny said hopefully, as he started along the sh.o.r.e of the second island, Sue following.

Again Sue hoped Bunny would not have any luck finding the scaly creatures, but she did not say so.

"How long you going to stay here, Bunny?" asked Sue, when they had walked almost around the small island. "I'm getting hungry again."

"Well, we'll go back pretty soon and eat the rest of the lunch," agreed Bunny. "But I wish--"

He suddenly stopped what he was saying and looked sharply ahead. Sue looked also, and what she saw made her rush to the side of her brother, cling to his arm and cry:

"There they are! There are the alligators!"

"Yes!" exclaimed Bunny. "They're sure enough alligators!"

There could be no mistake about it this time. Crawling up out of the river to the sh.o.r.e of the small island were a number of the long-tailed, scaly creatures with the big snouts. And as one of the alligators crawled up he opened his mouth, showing rows of sharp teeth.

"Oh, I don't want to stay here!" cried Sue, in alarm.

Bunny Brown grasped more firmly his sharp stick.

"Don't be afraid!" he said. "I won't let the alligators hurt you!"

CHAPTER XXV

MR. BUNN

Sue Brown thought a great deal of her brother Bunny, and she knew he was brave and good to her. But whether he could save her from the alligators she was not quite so certain.

"Oh, Bunny, Bunny! where you going?" cried Sue, as she felt her brother pull away from her.

"I'm going down there to drive those alligators away with my sharp stick!" he answered.

"Oh, Bunny, don't!" begged Sue. "There's such a lot of 'em!"

Bunny began to think this himself. As he and his sister watched, they saw more alligators crawling up out of the water to the warm sunny bank of the little island.

"There's hundreds of 'em!" cried Sue.

More and more alligators kept coming out of the water. Some were large--fully fifteen feet long perhaps, with big, sharp claws, a long, rough tail, and such big mouths! Others of the alligators were small, but there were no babies among them.

The sun shone warm on the mud and sand sh.o.r.es of the little island and that is why the alligators climbed out there. Alligators spend about half their time under water, getting things to eat, but when the sun shines hot they like to bask in it. That is what the scaly creatures were now doing.

"Let's don't hurt alligators," begged Sue of her brother. "Let's go back to our own island."

Bunny looked at the big, glistening, black creatures, as they crawled over one another, sometimes giving flips with their tails and opening their mouths. And though Bunny was a brave little chap he knew it would never do for him to go anywhere near the alligators. As it was, he and his sister were some distance back from the sh.o.r.e, up near the center of the little island. The alligators did not seem to have noticed them.

"All right," Bunny answered. "I won't hurt any of the alligators. We'll go home and I'll tell daddy and Mr. Halliday and they can come and hunt them."

"That'll be better," Sue said, with a sigh of relief.

For a little while longer the two children remained looking at the great water lizards. Then they started for the place where they had waded from one island to the other.

But when they reached this place, Sue keeping hold of her brother's hand all the way, they saw a new trouble.